One Lost Moment, One Lost Life
by Takhrenixe
Summary: Gone were the days of going solo, and Sonic got used to it. But not used enough.


_"We can take 'em, Sonic! Let's do this!"_

_"That's the way, little bro! Let's go!"_

The moon looks so bright, so . . . happy. Too happy.

_"There's too many of them! We need to break, or we'll wear ourselves out!"_

_"Good call, Tails. Here, this room looks empty. . ."_

For Chaos' sake, what in the _hell_ is there to be happy about?!

_"If you're ready, I'll open the door so we can get back out there."_

_"Well, it's now or never. Let's show them what we're made of!"_

You think you're capable of something, and the world crashes down around you, just to prove you wrong. Ironic. Almost funny.

_"What the heck--?!"_

_"NO! SONIC, MOVE!"_

Yes, it's just so damned _funny_.

And Sonic is sure that _he _would laugh, if _he_ wasn't--

if _he _wasn't ten feet underground. With a hole through his stomach.

Sonic surprises himself by crying; surely he'd shed enough tears in the past hour _alone_ to exhaust his lifetime quota, surely Chaos would spare him further torment, he thought, but no.

Fresh tears fall from his tightly shut emerald eyes.

Sonic has not opened them for days. He wants to, but he doesn't think he could bear it if Tails isn't standing there with his goofy smile, asking him what their agenda is for the day, and he's positive he deserves to feel that shock, that horror and disbelief and mild insanity that accompanied his witnessing Tails'. . . death.

So, the traumatized optics stay sealed from the outside world. He instead watches repeatedly as a huge laser shot through the supply-room door with cold precision, aimed for him and yet, it's thirst for destruction was sated not by his own blood, but by that of his brother. His little brother, Tails.

If he had just been more attentive, Sonic told himself.

If he'd just looked before he'd leapt.

If he'd just refused the kitsune child's pleas to accompany him in the first place.

If he'd just stopped being so_ damned careless._

The boy can take no more; his sobs become more pronounced as he hugs the teddy bear that had been his brother's to his heaving chest. The bundle of fluff maliciously contradicts its purpose, refusing to comfort. Stabbing at Sonic's heart like an icy knife, as if it knows that its owner has more or less been murdered by the trembling blue mass of fur who now holds it.

He grips it firmly. Sonic is sure that if he opens his eyes and looks down at it, the thing will be embedded halfway into his stomach, slicing him apart.

At least, that's what it feels like.

The Hedgehog's acute ears pick up the sound of a door, rattling the hinges.

Sonic pays no heed to it, not even so much as bothering to uncurl himself from the tightly wound ball he has spent the last three days in. He deems it unimportant to know who has broken down his locked bedroom door and, from the sound of it, has sat down on the bed with him. He pretends they don't exist. He pretends that there is nothing wrong in the world. He pretends his brother wasn't _shot_.

He pretends.

And so he is surprised once more when the person reaches out and touches him. People that don't exist can't do that, he thinks. His shattered mind rationalizes: the only one that exists, to him, is Tails. And how, if this person is not Tails, had they managed to touch him if they're not there?

For one split-second, a thought crossed his mind. Could this person, who so obviously _existed_, be Tails? He almost straightens and looks.

Almost. Until the small part of him that is still clinging to the twisted reality he lives in screams at him in admonishment.

Tails. Is. Dead.

Knowing this, Sonic can no longer stand the soft touch of the person's hand. He tries to run, but then remembers he is sitting on a bed.

So he just breaks.

And is puzzled that, when his razor-sharp defensive quills lash out in a flurry of blue to impale whoever it is that is trying to touch him, the person does not recoil. In fact, they do not move. And this confuses Sonic greatly.

"Hey, bro! What we gonna do today?"

He looks. He actually lifts up his head and _looks._

Nobody there. Just his desperate mind trying to save itself.

Too late. He is alone . . .

. . . Sonic's empty heart dies again.

END

This is what happens when you spend 19 consecutive hours obsessing over Sonic/Tails brotherly AMVs on the Almighty YouTube.

Scary, no?

Personally, sadist that I am, I enjoyed writing this immensely, and hope you enjoy it as well.

Signing off for now,  
-Takhrenixe


End file.
